Learning Agriculture in Taiwan

Forty nine Malaysian Members of Parliament ("MPs") have agreed to board their planes to Taiwan for a field trip to learn more about agriculture and industrial sectors.

It was fun reading the news when I first heard about this field trip. The places that cropped up were New Zealand then Australia, followed by Macao and China too. Lastly, all ended up in Taiwan as the visa requirement was much much easier. China ain't going to be happy with the Malaysian government for allowing forty nine lawmakers travelling to the land of their nemesis.

I have nothing against people who wanted to learn more stuff in beefing up their knowledge in all aspects of life especially when it was mentioned that the forty nine of them are paying for this trip out of their own pockets. True? Nobody can proof this but we give them the benefit of doubt.

In reading Taiwan - Agriculture, the agriculture sector from year 1973 to 1987 has only seen the crop production growth rate increased on average only 0.1% per year. In year 2001, the agriculture sector contributed only 2% to Taiwan's GDP. The agriculture industry's high cost of production and low returns have caused farm households to decrease by 6%.

Their top crop production is actually rice. The Taiwanese government is encouraging farmers to go for soybeans, wheat, and corn which are more profitable now owing to the growth in biotech industry. If rice was the main reason that the Malaysian MPs went for, ain't Thailand a better choice as they are the considered the main rice producer of the world.

Unless the government has better ideas in developing our nation into a world class flower producers in which Taiwan is embarking on it too. In reading Taiwan's Council of Agriculture, Taiwan is aiming to develop itself into a world–class flower island.

On the street itself, the general public is laughing at the MPs who are going for the field trip. The rumours of Pakatan Rakyat taking over the Malaysian government on 16 Sept 2008 could have prompted this last minute trip. But the organiser, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, said it was not but just co-incidental. All of time, it has to be co-incidental with the 16 Sept date. And it's in the middle of the fasting month, the Ramadan period. I don't think you can find any halal certified dishes in Taiwan itself especially when you have to go for field trips.

Even though they are paying for the trip on their own, why did they choose Taiwan. I'm very sure that the agricultural plans put up by the Ministry of Agriculture was equally good or even world class standard. In a field trip of such importance to the nation as a whole, ministry staff were not called up to tag along??????? Will all the forty nine MPs give special lectures individually at all Ministry of Agriculture's offices throughout the nation when they come back?

The one statement that caused me to fall down from my chair while reading it was this -
"The trip was supposedly for MPs to update themselves with the latest information about agriculture and high-tech food production so that they could debate better on the Budget when Parliament sits again in October."

So after all the questionings about the trip in linking it with the 16 Sept 2008 defection of MPs from the ruling government to the oppositions was just a rumour. The MPs are equipping themselves in answering questions during debate time in the parliament. Told you to give them a benefit of doubt.

Looks like there will be lots of overseas trips in the year to come till the debate on the Budget is over. MPs will travel all over the world in order to understand the mechanisms of how those things functions before they can debate in the parliament. There will be issues like:-
* public transportation nationwide (Germany has autobahn and top train services)
* public amenities in rural of sabah and sarawak (Australia's rural is quite huge)
* food security (Argentina's national plan on providing food at stable prices)

Reading: 50 Barisan MPs begin eight-day study trip - Star
Tags: Agriculture, Taiwan, Malaysian Politics, Council of Agriculture, Tiong King Sing, Ministry of Agriculture

Mad Football Business in Manchester

The city of Manchester in England is known for its industrial sector and partly made famous by the Manchester United football club (the club I support). That's the red part of the city. Wherelse the 'bluer' part of the city where Manchester City football club is located has not tasted football success for the last 20 years or so.

Manchester City's name has caught the attention of many football fans throughout the world when Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, one of the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, has purchased a majority interest in Manchester City from the deposed former Thailand Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

That surprising transaction has allowed a large inflow funds into Manchester City's coffer and allowed Mark Hughes the opportunity to buy the best football players that he wanted. In this scenario, I really doubt that he has any say in the signing of football players. I'm very very sure that it would be the Abu Dhabi owner's football fantasy game (just like those online or pc game - e.g. Football Manager 2009).

They have the money to splash around to buy whoever they want. Rumours are rife that Chelsea's owner's, Roman Abramovich, wealth is nothing compared to this Abu Dhabi oil magnate, heard that it was £12 billion compared to £550 billion.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the main person behind the scene, would be telling the management team in Manchester City to go for certain football players of his liking.

After snatching Robinho's from Chelsea, a list has been produced naming another eleven football players to make up a dream team that has been of interest to this Sheikh royalty:-

City Dream Team
1. Gianluigi Buffon Italy's World Cup-winning goalkeeper who plays for Juventus
2. Daniel Alves Brazil right back, signed by Barcelona for £24 million from Seville this summer
3. Rio Ferdinand Manchester United and England centre back and the “best defender in the world”, according to Sir Alex Ferguson
4. Fabio Cannavaro Real Madrid defender and 2006 Fifa World Player of the Year
5. Philipp Lahm Bayern Munich and Germany left back
6. Cristiano Ronaldo United forward and arguably the best player on the planet
7. Steven Gerrard Liverpool's captain and inspiration
8. Cesc Fàbregas Dynamic Arsenal and Spain midfield player
9. Ronaldinho Two-times Fifa World Player of the Year now at AC Milan
10. Kaká Milan's Fifa World Player of the Year
11. Fernando Torres Liverpool striker who won Euro 2008 with Spain

How much is ADUG willing to pay for the superstars? Just look at the picture and it will tell you that their cash register is almost bottomless.

Will the respective football clubs' owners be able to reject such money? Will the owners cash in to such offers? With such transactions, it's more of buying instant success.

Valencia has mentioned today that if Manchester City was interested to snatch their David Villa, they have better be ready with £121 million to trigger the buy out clause. With this kind of money pouring into the football system, it will definitely trigger price inflation on football players. I would be sure that more multi-billionaires will be jumping into England to buy up the remaining English Premier League teams ....... to the extent that the Everton management team has voiced out for it. Big boys' toys????

Reading: Football and films fuel Abu Dhabi's brand building dream - Telegraph UK
Reading: Sheikh's £500m dream team - The Sun

Tags: Football, Soccer, Manchester, Manchester United, Manchester City, Sky Blues, England, Eastlands, Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi United Group For Development And Investment, ADUG, English Premier League, Mark Hughes, Thaksin Shinawatra, Roman Abramovich, City Dream Team, Sheikh

Ramadan Month

When it comes to the Ramadan month, you could see such biscuit samples hanging on the wall with a listing for people to fill in their orders.

Hello friend, let me try all those sample first before I dare to place any orders ........ I'm very particular on food ..... ahem!
This gathering was held last Friday, partly a farewell party to 4 colleagues who would be leaving the company and a simple celebration in view of the coming Ramadan month.







For me, it was a gathering of fooooooooooood!!!!

We had Sudanese food as well as a Sudanese brother was willing to cook / share his country's dishes with us Malaysians.











At first they were shy, waiting for one another to start first. Wait till you see them tasting the food and they were uncontrollable. I was busy eating and unable to take those uncontrollable moments (was part of the action too).

It was a multi-national gathering too, there were people from Malaysia, Sudan, Philippines, India and China.

It's also during this fasting month where you could see lots of local malay delicacies at the Ramadan Bazaar. There's one near my house but have to be there early to grab those food.













You could people from all walks of life going to such Ramadan Bazaar.

To my muslim colleagues, friends and readers - Ramadan Al Kareem!
Tags: Ramadan, Ramadan Bazaar, Ramadan Al Kareem, Food, Sudanese Food

Michael Phelps' Regime Diet

I was very sure that Michael Phelps would break the record for the most number of golds won in one Olympic Games when he won his first event with such a commanding distance. In the end, he did it in style, 8 golds with all in record time (7 world records and 1 Olympic record) at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. To be at this stage at a young age of 23 is really something to shout about.

I still remembered those days of mine when I was 20 years old where I took part in my church sports day. At that age, I was at full fitness / strength. I won 6 medals out of 6 events in 5 hours plus. Started off with 1,500m - Silver (defended my 1999 silver title and lost to a different fella ........ sigh), followed by 100m - Bronze (1999 didn't take part) and then the 400m - Gold (1999 defending champ).

The day went on with my High Jump - Silver (defended my silver medal ...... nothing to shout about as I should be winning the gold seeing that the previous year's winner was not around but unfortunately another guy won it who was not there in 1999. The same scenario happened in the 1,500m).

Almost by noon time, we had the 4x100m relay - Gold (1999 defending champ) where I started off as the first runner (by this time my strength was dwindling). My last event was Long Jump - Bronze (unable to defend my 1999 title). I remembered I really did struggle in this long jump event where I shortened my run up. The first jump was totally awful where my thigh was so weak it didn't give the push needed to take off ............. hahaha. The 3rd and final jump was good enough for the bronze medal. The guy who won the gold was placed third in 1999. And I don't think I broke any of the records set in 1999 ....... hehehe

My training for this sports day started off 3 months earlier and it was jogging initially and ended with intensive training towards the big day, a minimum of 1 hour a day. Food wise - nothing in particular as I just whacked anything that my eyes saw. In this sense, it was a lot of food. Only on the morning of the sports day, I took milk and raw eggs and energy bars for the needed carbo.

In the case of Michael Phelps, his training schedule entails work outs for up to 5 hours a day and he swims 80km a week. My my my ........ pale in comparison for my case. To keep up with the energy required for such strict training, he requires 12,000 calories of food per day.

His breakfast - 3 fried egg sandwiches with bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise (don't worry about the side effect of getting fat now); 3 chocolate-chip pancakes (size of a discus); western omelette with fries; 3 slices of french toast with sugar; a bowl of grits and 2 cups of coffee. It requires 45 minutes to finish.

Lunch - 2 ham and chess sandwiches with mayo; a pound (0.45kg) of pasta and energy drinks.

Dinner - a pound of pasta with carbonara sauce, a large pizza and energy drinks.

hmmmmmmm I think I have no problem walloping all the food as listed (if you knew me well enough) but then I will bloat up at the same time without any sporting activities. Even if there are activities, it won't be enough to burn up all those 12,000 calories. Besides the training, I need a sponsor to pay for that amount of food.
Tags: Michael Phelps, Swimming, Olympic Games, Calories, Sports Day, Regime Diet

Pathetic Advertorial by Local University

The advertorial as below was placed by a local university, University Tun Hussein Onn ("UTHO"), in the New Straits Times ("NST") newspaper on 23 Aug 08. Three days later, NST placed an apology for publishing that advertorial. NST stated that the advertorial contained gross factual and grammatical errors. I should say that UTHO should have apologised for those terrible mistakes.

Furthermore, this advertorial was placed in honour of a royal family's princess by the name of Raja Zarith Sofiah, for obtaining a degree from UTHO. In the advertorial, UTHO was so confused about Raja Zarith Sofiah being a male or female.
If this is the sort of english language that is being taught in Malaysia's current education system coupled with zealous politicians that were fighting for reverting back to Malay language for the Maths and Science subjects, then good luck.

For those zealous politicians, these are the type of english language that you wanted our students to possess and you have succeeded. Congratulations!

Reading: A disgrace to Malaysian tertiary education - Adrian Hoe
Related post - The State of Malaysian Students Education
Tags: Education, Malaysian Education, University Tun Hussein Onn, Raja Zarith Sofiah, Convocation Ceremony, Honorary Degree Award, English Language, Malay Language

Smell of a New House

Over the weekend paid a visit to my new house project site. Satisfied over its work progress and the major works are concentrated within the interior and porch area. Mainly the toilets, laying of tiles, internal wall paint, installation of power points / lighting points / doors / windows. The developer is still targetting handover by Jan '09.
The back portion of my row of houses are already plastered and awaiting the erection of the brickwall as its divider.

Related post - New House Near Completion
Tags: House Renovation, New House

MPAJ Rules for House Renovation

I saw this in a forum, where it stated that Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya ("MPAJ") has new rulings for house owners.

House owners are to apply for renovation permits which cost up to RM300. Besides that, you may have to pay for RM50 for putting up a board in front of the house and RM200 for a rubbish crate to be put outside your house and some deposits (could run into hundreds too).

You must apply for the renovation permit if you intend to do the following:-
* installation of grill (door or window);
* installation of wardrobe;
* installation of kitchen cabinet;
* installation of awning; and
* laying of new tiles onto existing tiles ... (crazy or what?)
* changing of old wall / floor tiles to new tiles
* anything to do with the roof, porch or fencing

To apply for the above permits, you have to pay RM5 for the application form ......... hehehehe.

If you are not happy with the high cost involved, bring it up Ong Tee Keat, the Member of Parliament ("MP") of the area. Might be the future president of the Malaysian Chinese Association. Why did I bring up his name? Firstly, he's the MP. Secondly, he has these bold words in his personal blog "Rela Berkorban Dan Berjuang Untuk Anda!" (Ready to Sacrifice and Fight For You). That's a strong statement, so go and see him .......... if he can't help you to reduce cost, ask him to re-consider the bold statement.
Tags: MPAJ, Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya, House Renovation, Ong Tee Keat